Hotshots: America's elite firefighters

Firefighters with the Type 1 Interagency Hotshot Crew (IHC), based out of the Lone Peak Conservation Center in Draper, Utah, build a fire break as the Springs fire continues to grow near Camarillo, Calif., May 3, 2013.

Interagency Hotshot Crews (IHC) are elite firefighting teams employed by agencies including the U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management and National Park Service. The crews, of 20 members each, specialize in suppressing wildfires and are sent throughout the U.S. There are 110 hotshot crews in the country, according to the U.S. Forest Service website.

It is dangerous work. This week, 19 crew members lost their lives in Arizona. It was the nation's biggest loss of firefighters in a wildfire in 80 years.

Read on to see the hotshots at work fighting fires throughout the U.S.

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A firefighting helicopter makes a water drop above the Type 1 Interagency Hotshot Crew (IHC), based out of the Lone Peak Conservation Center, in Draper, Utah, May 3, 2013 near Camarillo, Calif.

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A U.S. Forest Service Hotshot crew member carries a chainsaw as firefighters work to contain the Williams fire in the Angeles National Forest north of Glendora, Calif., Sept. 3, 2012.

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A column of elite U.S. Forest Service Hotshot firefighters walk along the edge of the black near Hidden Valley at the Springs fire near Camarillo, Calif., May 4, 2013.

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A Payson Hotshot crewmember uses a hose to cool off a back burn near Spencer's Ridge on the Aspen fire near Tuscon, Ariz., June 23, 2003.

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Mark Urbani, a Mendocino hotshot crew member from Fort Bragg, Calif., sets up sprinklers to help protect structures in Glacier National Park's Kelly Camp in Montana, Aug. 12, 2003.

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A firefighter with the Flagstaff Arizona HotShots carries a burning log closer to the water source after containing a fire in Los Alamos, N.M., May 12, 2000.

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Firefighters with the Flagstaff Arizona HotShots work to contain fires in Los Alamos, N.M., May 12, 2000.

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A firefighter from a hotshot crew walks through burned forest in the Guaje Canyon, four miles southeast of Los Alamos, May 14, 2000.

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A firefighter from a hotshot crew inspects a fire control area in the Santa Clara Canyon as winds calmed down, May 15, 2000.

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A U.S. Forest Service hotshot wipes his face while taking a break from fighting the the Station Fire in Tujunga, Calif., Aug. 31, 2009.

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A U.S. Forest Service hotshot talks on the radio as he lights a back fire in La Crescenta, Calif., Aug. 31, 2009.

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U.S. Forest Service hotshot crews monitor a backfire as it burns in hills near homes in La Crescenta, Calif., Aug. 31, 2009.

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A U.S. Forest Service hotshot crew member uses a drip torch to light a backfire Sylmar, Calif., Sept. 1, 2009.

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Firefighters from the Blue Ridge Hotshots crew from the Coconino National Forest in Arizona clear trees and brush along the road as a flare-up on the western front of the 226-square-mile Station Fire threatened to send fire into the Dillon Divide near Pacoima Canyon near Santa Clarita, Calif., Sept. 3, 2009.

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Members of the Logan Hotshots from Logan, Utah, report for duty at the Blue Springs fire between St. George and Cedar City, Utah, June 27, 2005.

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Members of the Flagstaff Hotshots look on as the Aspen Fire crests the ridge west of the Summerhaven community in Tucson, Ariz., June 19, 2003.

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Members of the Silver City Hotshots stand near trees and bushes that were part of a burn out operation, designed to deny the Kinishba fire of fuel, near Whiteriver, Ariz., July 16, 2003.

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Randy Lanain, a firefighter with the Dalton Hotshots, walks in front of a large flame in New Harmony Heights near St. George, Utah, June 27, 2005.

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Scott Hall of the Rogue River Hotshots out of Prospect, Ore., chops down an oak tree which was blocking the road in the Siskiyou National Forest west of Selma, Ore., Aug. 1, 2002.